I think this tastes like Yak poo...

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Day 8

We got up really early this morning so we could see sunrise over the mountains. It was beautiful as the sunlight slowly illuminated the mountains. We then started a really long day. We knew if was going to be a long day of riding – we were told 29km. It turned out to be 55km…not sure of the difference between Nepali and Canadian kilometers!! Most of today was on jeep roads. This involved pot holes, rocks, big puddles and much poo. If I get Giardia on this trip it will be from the flying poo and muck today I imaging. It’s a bad sign when you say…”oh I know that taste. Its Yak poo!”

We dropped 3000m over the course of today and climbed 1000m so a big day. The crazy drop in altitude meant that we went from dry, barren mountains to pine trees to rain forest and humidity. Once we reached the village we were having lunch at (Tatopani) one of the village ladies was shouting at our group angrily. It turned out one of the guys hit and killed one of her chickens on the way into town. He had to pay her 1000 rupees for the chicken (she got to keep it though!).

Heather and I were pretty exhausted after lunch and were told it was only 8kn until we get picked up by the jeeps. At one point when I thought we had gone about 4km I asked if we were about half way. I got a funny look and a “no”. We kept on going for a long way and eventually got there. We were filthy and exhausted….and it turns out 8km was really 16km. We grabbed some beers here and jumped into jeeps to drive to Pokhara. Some crazy night driving, but we got there in one piece. Ready for a nice shower and some dinner.





Day 9



This was our last day of riding and it was a short day. We drove up to the World Peace Pagoda which is a Buddhist monument for world peace. Its at the top of a hill with beautiful view over the lake and the mountains. We had to carry our bikes up stairs again on our back. I let out a whimper at this as the last thing I wanted to do was put my bike on my back again….but I managed. We had a short 4kn of single track down the mountain. After some slippy steps we headed down the trail. This was a nice technical trail with drops, rocks and roots. This was too short and we all wanted another run down, but unfortunately the bikes needed sent by truck back to Kathmandu.



Although there were many options of what to do this afternoon, most of us lay by the pool soaking in the sun and relaxing. Wont be much of that happening when we go back to the Canadian Winter.



Day 10



We flew back to Kathmandu with Yeti airlines today. Was glad to get this small plane ride over. The rest of our flights are at least on bigger planes. I’m not sure why they do this, but the pilots come in super fast for the landing. Not sure if it’s the altitude?



We spend this after noon going up to the monkey temple (Swayambhunath). This is one of those interesting sites that we have seen that is a scared site for both Muslims and Buddhists. This temple is on the top of a hill that has view of the Kathmandu valley. The stairs up get steeper and steeper as you go up…and have monkey’s running all over them. The usual temple dogs were sunbathing at the top of the hill – dogs never leave temples as the monks feed them.



We had lunch on the roof top up here and had a scary moment when a dog came charging at us…we thought we were about to get bitten by a rabid dog…but not he was chasing a monkey!



There were some super cute puppies at the top of the hill…dirty but still really cute. Heather wouldn’t let me take one home.

We had dinner courtesy of Mads the tour operator. This was at the Shangri la hotel in Kathmandu. This is a 5 star hotel which is an oasis in the middle of the craziness of Kathmandu. We were going to JazzMandhu which is a jazz festival in Kathmandu. It was really good, but a bit surreal with all the expats being there.



Tomorrow we head to Bhutan for something completely different again!

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Photos

Sunrise over the Himalayas.
Getting up early was worth it!

Climbing onto the broken bridge
Only half of the bridge is unstable...we think!

Another suspension bridge
Before we came on this trip Heather was scared of these bridges. Now she rides them again for the photo!

Tired and dirty
Just need to get rid of this yak poo...

Swayambhunath Temple
Monkey Temple

Sleeping dogs
Sunning themselves at the temple.

View from our hotel.
Warm showers and this view. Great place.